Disinformation

For our assignment on awareness, I decided to do research on disinformation. My classmates researched propoganda, the smith-mudnt act, total information awareness, false flag, and five eyes.

What is disinformation?

• Disinformation can be described as deliberately spreading false information with knowledge that it’s incorrect. It is covertly spread in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.
• Disinformation was defined in Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1952) as “false information with the intention to deceive public opinion”

Difference between disinformation & misinformation: 

• Disinformation: deliberately descriptive information. The intention are unknowable, however, may be socially motivated, for good reasons (lying about surprise party), personally motivated, or for bad reasons (ruining someone’s reputation)
• Misinformation: incorrect or misleading information

Difficult to distinguish among information, misinformation, and disinformation: 

• People enjoy sharing information, especially when it is “news”
• Although they may not believe such information themselves, they take pleasure in disseminating it through their social networks

An example:

• Timothy Poe on America’s got Talent a few years ago, shared an emotional story about being injured by a grenade in Afghanistan.
• However, later, the Minnesota National Guard issued a statement saying that Poe's military records do not show the injury.
• On “America’s Got Talent,” Poe said he “got hit” by a grenade and that it “broke my back and gave me a brain injury”, but that did not happen.
• He deliberately told America a FAKE news story for personally motivated reasons; to get higher in the competition.